HAMLET – This past Saturday was the 5th of May, or Cinco de Mayo (capitalized “Cinco”) if you are referencing its historical significance and/or status as a recognized holiday of sorts.
But what exactly IS that “significance” and why has the gringo population of the United States adopted it as yet another excuse to imbibe and indulge in such gaiety and celebratory festivities?
Sadly, many, if indeed not most, of us are not quite sure.
An impromptu “survey” of patrons at the La Cabana in Hamlet on Saturday revealed that about half of those quizzed thought it to be in commemoration of Mexican independence, although few could elaborate as to exactly whom it was that Mexico gained independence FROM. “Spain” was the most obvious and thus most uttered answer, while some said “France” (closer to the truth, actually, at least in conjunction with Cinco de Mayo), and one lad believed that “Germany” was the fatherland of Mexico.
Of course, none of that is quite as accurate as your history teacher would like, so …
Cinco de Mayo is an annual celebration to commemorate the Mexican army’s unlikely victory over the invading French army of Napoleon III on May 5th, 1862 at the Battle of Puebla.
The history encompassing the day is a bit complicated. During the aftermath of the Mexican-American War of 1846–48 (not to be confused with the earlier 1836 Battle of the Alamo and the war for Texas’ independence from Mexico) and the “Reform Civil War” of 1858-1861 in which liberals favoring a separation of church and state affronted the ruling Catholic conservatives. This conflict was quite costly to the Mexican nation, rendering the country bankrupt. Thus, Mexican President Benito Juarez decreed that no foreign debt payments would be made for two years. This action in turn enraged the creditor nations of Britain, Spain, and France, each of whom immediately sent naval forces to Veracruz to demand their respective payments. Britain and Spain entered into negotiated agreements with Mexico and sailed away, but the French would not be pacified with promises and, with ulterior motives of possibly re-establishing some semblance of their previous holdings on the North American continent, establishing a true “Latin America” signifying a cultural relationship between the Romance language countries (or at least France itself) and the “American” peoples of what we now refer to as “Central America.”
With these aspirations in mind, Napoleon III sanctioned a full-scale invasion of Mexico and, in December of 1861, sent his troops into Veracruz, then the capital. President Juarez and his government were forced into retreat and effectively lost governmental control of their country.
The French army commenced movement from Veracruz towards Mexico City but were confronted with heavy Mexican resistance near the city of Puebla at the forts of Loreto and Guadalupe. The French army numbered approximately 8,000 well-trained and well-equipped veteran soldiers and thus did not hesitate to attack the much smaller (the Mexicans had less than 4,000 troops) and less prepared Mexican defenders. Surprisingly, however, the Mexicans under General Ignacio Zaragoza made a heroic stand, soundly defeating the larger force of invaders and imbuing the country with newfound zeal, patriotism, and national unity.
Unfortunately, the Mexican exuberance was relatively short-lived; less than a year later the French returned with an army of 30,000 and defeated the Mexican army, captured Mexico City, and installed Emperor Maximilian I as the monarch of the country. However, upon the end of the American Civil War, the United States was nervous about having a French power ensconced so close to our border and took action to expel the invaders, depose and execute Maximilian, and allow President Juarez to reclaim power on June 5th of 1867.
So why then did such a seemingly meaningless occurrence at Puebla retain such notoriety and fame throughout the ensuing decades, and especially so in the United States?
First of all, the victory by a rag-tag group of men against an army that had not tasted defeat of any type for over half a century was intrinsically inspiring to the Mexican people. Secondly, it has been argued that, since the Battle of Puebla, NO country in any part of the Americas has been invaded by any other European force. A function of serendipity or not, and the fact that the French ultimately prevailed a few years later notwithstanding, the perception remains.
On perhaps a more subtle and speculative level, it has also been proposed that, had the Mexicans not proved victorious at Puebla in 1862, the French, as rivals, if not indeed pseudo-enemies of the United States, would have most assuredly come to the immediate aid of the Confederacy; such action could have indeed changed the entire course of the American Civil War, much as did the aid of the French to the revolutionaries of the British Colonies 83 years prior.
But that still fails to explain why Cinco de Mayo is vastly more popular in the United States than it is in its “home country” of Mexico. Well, the modern American focus on the date seemingly occurred quite quickly, the very next year in 1863 to be precise. Mexican gold miners in the town of Columbia, California, upon hearing the news (albeit a bit late) of the “successful” resistance to the French invaders, spontaneously fired off rifle shots, sang patriotic songs, made impromptu speeches, and ignited fireworks.
It was not until the 1940s, though, during the rise of the Chicano movement and on into the 50’s and 60’s that the holiday “crossed over” from California into the rest of the United States. It was yet another 40 years before, in the 1980s, marketers and promoters (primarily of beer and related libations – imagine that) began to capitalize on the festive nature of the concept. Cinco de Mayo celebrations began to proliferate across the country and, with the simultaneous surge in the immigration of Hispanics into America, the propagation of the “holiday” was inevitable, effectively culminating in a 2005 congressional resolution calling upon the president to issue a proclamation that Cinco de Mayo should be revered and observed “with appropriate ceremonies and activities.”
Obviously, various commercial interests in the United States have capitalized on the celebration, advertising Mexican products and associated services with an emphasis on alcoholic beverages and Hispanic foods, music, dances, etc. It was noted that, in 2013, more than $600 million was spent on purchases of beer in the U.S. in conjunction with Cinco de Mayo, making it more “popular” in that sense than even St. Patrick’s Day or the Super Bowl.
